2010 was most definitely a year of choices, a year of choices that have led to changes in many parts of our lives; but when we look back on these decisions, it is interesting to wonder whether the decisions we made were the right ones (the benefit of 20-20 hindsight), and if not what we can learn from them.
I remember a public school professor talking to us about the benefit of the debrief – much like the airfare I think he said – making it seem like such a foreign concept and making us realize how forward-thinking he was to suggest it. But the fact is not that a debrief is a foreign concept, but more that as human beings we enjoy applying selective amnesia to our lives and a debrief on decisions is sometimes more like rubbing salt into the wounds than learning from the past.
So with this in mind, as I look back on the year gone by, I think my new year’s resolution will not be one of more exercise and less fries (although it wouldn’t hurt) but more of choices, of making rational and emotional choices as one needs to, and of trying to make choices based on experience, based on the knowledge of the past and it how it can help me in the future.
Rational choices means being more aware, aware of what one wants and needs (and that sometimes means focussing on yourself and the couple rather than anything beyond) and also of planning ahead – it is always easier to have a plan and change it than to walk into the unknown unprepared.
May your 2011 be one of wise choices.
